STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10733
IN SENATE
November 6, 2026
___________
Introduced by Sen. MAY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the general business law, in relation to establishing
the understanding artificial intelligence act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The general business law is amended by adding a new article
2 45-C to read as follows:
3 ARTICLE 45-C
4 UNDERSTANDING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
5 ACT
6 Section 1550. Short title.
7 1551. Definitions.
8 1552. Artificial intelligence; liability for injuries.
9 § 1550. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
10 "understanding artificial intelligence act".
11 § 1551. Definitions. For purposes of this article, the following terms
12 shall have the following meanings:
13 1. "Artificial intelligence" means an engineered or machine-based
14 system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit
15 or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate
16 outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
17 2. "Covered model" means an artificial intelligence model trained
18 using a quantity of computing power greater than 10§26 integer or float-
19 ing-point operations, the cost of which exceeds one hundred million
20 dollars when calculated using the average market prices of cloud compute
21 at the start of training as reasonably assessed by the developer.
22 3. "Developer" means a person that performs the initial training of a
23 covered model by training a model using a sufficient quantity of comput-
24 ing power and cost.
25 4. "Fine-tuning" means adjusting the model weights of a trained
26 covered model by exposing it to additional data.
27 § 1552. Artificial intelligence; liability for injuries. 1. Except
28 with respect to any causes of action for defamation, developers of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02147-06-6
S. 10733 2
1 covered models shall be strictly liable, regardless of the degree of
2 care they exercised, for all injuries to a non-user of the covered model
3 that satisfy the actual harm element of an ordinary negligence claim if:
4 (a) those injuries are factually and proximately caused by a covered
5 model that engages in conduct that, if undertaken by an adult human of
6 sound mind, would satisfy the elements of negligence or any intentional
7 tort or crime; and
8 (b) that conduct was neither intended nor could have been reasonably
9 anticipated by: (i) the user of the model; or (ii) any intermediary that
10 fine-tuned, scaffolded, or otherwise modified the model.
11 2. (a) For the purposes of this section, for any torts for which the
12 mental state of the alleged tortfeasor is relevant to elements of the
13 tort, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the artificial intel-
14 ligence system satisfies the relevant mental state if the finder of fact
15 determines by a preponderance of the evidence that, if a natural person
16 under similar circumstances to the artificial intelligence system took
17 actions similar to those taken by the artificial intelligence system,
18 that natural person would have acted with the relevant mental state.
19 (b) Unless the court determines that the presumption established in
20 paragraph (a) of this subdivision is not applicable, if the party
21 against whom the presumption is invoked presents evidence tending to
22 rebut the presumption established in paragraph (a) of this subdivision,
23 the court shall instruct the finder of fact to find that the presumed
24 facts exist unless the finder of fact is persuaded that the presumed
25 facts do not exist.
26 (c) For the purposes of this section, it shall not be a defense that
27 artificial intelligence systems are incapable of having mental states.
28 3. (a) It shall be an affirmative defense to strict liability if the
29 developer establishes that the covered model satisfied the standard of
30 care applicable to humans who perform the same function that the covered
31 model was engaged in performing when its conduct allegedly caused the
32 plaintiff's injury.
33 (b) It shall be an affirmative defense to strict liability if the
34 developer establishes that the injuries to a non-user as described in
35 this section were a result of a capabilities failure, in which a covered
36 model falls short of performing the intended or reasonably anticipated
37 performance of the user, but the conduct of the system would not satisfy
38 the elements of negligence or any intentional tort or crime if engaged
39 in by an adult human of sound mind.
40 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
